FEMA Records
16
Below median
Texas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Val Verde County, TX
16 FEMA disaster declarations (1993-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 16
- FEMA declarations
- 8
- Major disasters
- 76
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Val Verde County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 16 declarations, more than 27% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 23% below the Texas county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 24%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 24%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 16
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 158
- NFIP flood insurance claims filed
FEMA's National Risk Index and its declaration registry are separate measures. This county's registry includes Major Disaster (DR) and Emergency (EM) records; an EM authorizes a narrower set of federal assistance than a DR.
FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk
County FIPS 48465 · Val Verde County 16 declarations · rank 2341/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 16
- MAJOR-MID 50%
- RANK-LOWER #2,341
- PHOTO-FINISH Greene
- NRI-LOW 76
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- VS-ST-BELOW -23%
Nearest declaration peer: Greene, GA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Texas state profile
Val Verde County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Val Verde County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Frontier · near 16
Frontier · near
16 declarations
- Greene · near 16
Greene · near
16 declarations
- Terrell · near 16
Terrell · near
16 declarations
- Val Verde · this county 16
Val Verde · this county
16 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Val Verde County carries 16 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2341 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Val Verde County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Val Verde County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Val Verde County
16 27th percentile higher than 27% of 3,266 counties
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more counties. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 · 2026-08-25
Val Verde County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Val Verde County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 158 paid claims, totaling $3.6M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $23.0K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a Texas county averages 20.9 federal declaration records, while Val Verde County has 16. The gap is 23% below that mean. Fewer entries indicate a quieter history of recorded federal actions, not immunity from a hazard and not a prediction about what happens next.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 76.1/100 (Relatively Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $23.6M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Very High and community resilience Very Low, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Riverine Flooding carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 3.9 times per year here, based on 109 historical events on record.
53 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Val Verde County, TX · PlainHazard-derived composite from federal records
This 0–100 index is an explicit PlainHazard composite from FEMA declaration history only on the county surface (this DB has no county-level NOAA damage row) . It is not FEMA's National Risk Index, not a forecast, and not a safety, insurance, or preparedness rating. Open the calculator · Methodology
FEMA Declarations (1953–present) Moderate
12/30
16 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.8x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
10/25
16 declarations (0.8x state county average of 21)
Major Disaster Share High
13/25
8 of 16 declarations are major disasters (50%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Val Verde County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Val Verde County
How to read this radar
Each axis: NRI risk rating (Very Low-Very High) on a 0-100 scale. Rounder = broad exposure; spiky = one or two hazards dominate.
Major Disaster share
50%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
76
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Val Verde County?
FEMA's National Risk Index models a historical event count and an annualized frequency for each hazard type. Most hazards are expressed as modeled occurrences per year; FEMA expresses drought and heat-wave frequency as event-days per year. These modeled frequencies are not forecasts.
| Hazard | NRI Risk Rating | Recurrence |
|---|---|---|
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.9 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 304 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.9 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1 time per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 41 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 5.5 modeled event-days per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 147 modeled event-days per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 55 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | an average of 1.6 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 4,950 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Fire 4
Hurricane 4
Flood 2
Severe Ice Storm 2
Biological 2
Severe Storm 1
Drought 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Val Verde County's record, 25% of its declarations. Wildfire is the one hazard here with its own dedicated federal instrument: the Fire Management Assistance Grant, which appears in this data as an FM record. An FMAG can be authorised while a fire is still burning, on a timescale of hours, because its purpose is to reimburse the cost of fighting a fire that threatens to become a major disaster.
That distinction matters when comparing counties. An FM declaration is not a presidential major disaster declaration and does not carry the same assistance programmes, so a fire-heavy county's total is not directly comparable with a hurricane-heavy county's total unless the declaration types are separated, which is why they are listed separately on this page.
Declaration counts describe past federal action. They are a record of what was declared, not a forecast of future hazard probability.
Declaration Types
What DR / EM / FM mean
FEMA categorizes declarations as Major Disasters (DR), Emergencies (EM), or Fire Management Assistance (FM).
Emergency - 8 50.0%
of all 16 declarations
Major Disaster - 8 50.0%
of all 16 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 3 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 16 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 16 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3649 | FLOODING | EM | Flood | 2026-07-18 |
| 4586 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-19 |
| 3554 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-14 |
| 4485 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-25 |
| 3458 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4416 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-02-25 |
| 1999 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2011-07-01 |
| 1931 | HURRICANE ALEX | DR | Hurricane | 2010-08-03 |
| 3284 | WILDFIRES | EM | Fire | 2008-03-14 |
| 1624 | EXTREME WILDFIRE THREAT | DR | Fire | 2006-01-11 |
| 1606 | HURRICANE RITA | DR | Hurricane | 2005-09-24 |
| 3261 | HURRICANE RITA | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-21 |
| 3216 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-02 |
| 3142 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARDS | EM | Fire | 1999-09-01 |
| 1239 | TROPICAL STORM CHARLEY | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-08-26 |
| 3113 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARD | EM | Drought | 1993-09-10 |
Storm Events in Texas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Val Verde County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 14,072 | 0 | 15 | $7.4B |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 10,293 | 41 | 141 | $369.9M |
| Drought | 7,032 | 0 | 0 | $86.0K |
| Flash Flood | 4,728 | 338 | 24 | $47.6B |
| Heat | 4,079 | 119 | 405 | $0 |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
158
Total Paid
$3.6M
Avg Per Claim
$23.0K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 76.1/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$23.6M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Hurricane Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) Ratings reflect relative scores among all US counties. Data: hazards.fema.gov/nri
The model's sharpest exposure here: Riverine Flooding
Riverine Flooding is the model's measure of a watershed draining more water than its channel can carry. Unlike flash flooding it usually builds over days and is forecast in advance, which makes it the hazard where warning time most reliably converts into reduced harm.
Worth noting for Val Verde County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Riverine Flooding carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), while the county's declaration history is led by Fire. That is not a contradiction, the two measure genuinely different things. Declarations record federal ACTION, which requires damage costly enough to exceed state and local capacity; the Risk Index models EXPECTED annual loss across all 18 hazards whether or not any declaration ever followed. A hazard can be the county's largest modeled exposure and never once have driven a declaration.
National Risk Index ratings are modeled estimates of expected annual loss, not predictions of what will happen in any given year.
Data-matched county comparisons
Val Verde County's closest FEMA peer: Ottawa County, OK
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Val Verde County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Val Verde County: NRI composite 76.1 (Relatively Low).
Similar Major-disaster share
Val Verde County: 8 of 16 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Val Verde County shows 16 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
How these peers are chosen
Cohort: Published U.S. county equivalents outside the source state or territory. Each metric keeps six ETL candidates; three unique destinations are shown after de-duplicating across axes. Declaration-volume ranking combines count and Major-disaster share and prefers a different leading incident type; Major-share ranks the Major fraction adjusted for volume; NRI ranks the modeled composite score only.
Retained FEMA snapshot feed for Val Verde County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Val Verde County: nearest out-of-state National Risk Index composite and nearest FEMA declaration count (floor ≥5 records). Record similarity only, not a forecast of the next hazard.
Similar NRI composite
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA NRI score. This county: 76.1 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 16. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Val Verde County's NFIP claims file (158 claims) and FEMA declaration history measure different federal records - this guide separates them from modeled NRI risk.
More PlainHazard guides
- Most disaster-prone counties - U.S. counties ranked by FEMA declaration totals.
- Understanding disaster data - declarations vs storm events vs NRI scores.
- Preparing for natural disasters - household checklist (not county-specific advice).
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Val Verde County?
The most common disaster type in Val Verde County is Fire, with 4 declarations. Other disaster types include Hurricane (4), Flood (2), Severe Ice Storm (2).
How does Val Verde County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Texas average?
The typical Texas county has 20.9 FEMA declaration records; Val Verde County has 16, or 23% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 23% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Val Verde County received?
Val Verde County has received 8 major disaster declarations, representing 50% of all 16 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Val Verde County filed?
Val Verde County has 158 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $3.6M in payments, with an average of $23.0K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Val Verde County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Val Verde County was 2005, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1993 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Val Verde County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Val Verde County, Texas has an overall risk score of 76.1 out of 100 (Relatively Low). Social vulnerability here rates Very High, while community resilience comes in at Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $23.6M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Val Verde County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Val Verde County as of the latest release is Riverine Flooding (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Wildfire (Relatively Low) and Winter Weather (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts riverine flooding here at an average of 3.9 times per year, drawn from 109 historical events on record. These scores are based on FEMA's analysis of historical event frequency, exposed assets, and community vulnerability.
Data Sources & Methodology
Disaster declaration data comes from the FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 API, which includes all federally declared disasters, emergencies, and fire management assistance grants.
Storm event data is sourced from the NOAA Storm Events Database (2015-2025), which tracks significant weather events including thunderstorms, tornadoes, floods, and winter storms.
Flood insurance data comes from the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA claims dataset.
This data is provided for informational purposes only. FEMA disaster declarations represent federal response actions and may not capture all local emergencies or weather events.
FEMA OpenFEMA declarations + NRI for Val Verde County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Texas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events